


The First Meeting

by SirenDreams



Series: Forge A Connection [1]
Category: Death Stranding (Video Games)
Genre: Beached Things (Death Stranding), DOOMS (Death Stranding), F/M, First Meetings, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Minor Character Death, OC is Sam's assistant, Sam might be a little OOC but i tried my best, Timefall (Death Stranding), bts - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:53:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23352751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirenDreams/pseuds/SirenDreams
Summary: Jade Morgan is assigned as an assistant for Sam following a tragic event in her past. Neither of them are exactly receptive to the idea but they'll make do, and perhaps, somewhere down the line, a friendship will bloom. A friendship that might become something more... if they let it. [OC x Sam Porter Bridges]
Relationships: Sam Porter Bridges/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Forge A Connection [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1679635
Kudos: 16





	The First Meeting

Sam steps off the elevator with a breath of relief, wanting nothing more after the last delivery than to rest up in his private room and be left alone. He makes his way down the hall and enters the doorway expecting the room to be empty... but finds a woman standing inside instead. He can't tell much about her or why she's there in the first place. Only that she's small, wearing standard issue Bridges clothing that hangs loose on her body, and that she has light brown hair. Something about her posture seems... odd and were he feeling sociable, he'd ask if she were okay. Instead, he speaks up to get her attention and, hopefully, to get her out of the room.

“Private room.”

The girl turns with such rapid speed that she sends the end of her loose ponytail flying over her shoulder to smack her in the face. She pays little mind, merely moves her hair out of her face and stares wide-eyed with her emerald gaze fixated on him in a mix of both relief and wariness.

“Means it’s private.” Sam strides past the woman, unhooking BB and placing it in the built-in holder on the shelf. “How’d you get in here anyway?”

“Die-Hardman let me in.” She says cautiously, gaze darting from him to BB to the door and back again. “He thought you’d be here already, I guess.”

“Who’re you?”

“Oh, right.” She claps her hands together, then fiddles with her ponytail. “Jade Morgan. I’d, uh, offer to shake hands but I’ve been warned that you’re not a fan of physical contact.”

“You gonna explain why you’re here?”

“I’ve been assigned to you as your assistant.” When Sam stares blankly, Jade rushes on. “You still get all the credit for the deliveries, of course. As well as picking what jobs you take on. I’m just here to accompany you and assist with any and all deliveries.”

“I don’t need an assistant.”

“Should you come across any lost cargo you want to deliver but are unable to carry, I’ll be there to handle it for you and to also offer assistance with terrain traversal.” Her gaze flicks up to his, then rapidly away again. “I... am aware the situation is less than ideal, but given that I have no way of telling Bridges no... this is what I have to do.”

“What, they don’t trust you on your own?”

“It’s more like I don’t… do well. Alone. Haven’t for a long time, but that’s a long story.” She rocks back on her heels, gaze flicking again to BB’s pod⏤ where the baby stares with a quizzical expression. “That being said, I’ll get out of your room. Given that, you know, it’s your private room.” She laughs nervously, rubbing a hand over her forehead. “Of course you know that. I’ll just be right outside whenever you’re ready to go.”

Just as she reaches the door, it slides open and Die-Hardman walks in.

“Sam, I see you’ve met Morgan.”

“I was just leaving, Mr. Hardman.”

“So soon?” he questions, standing just inside the doorway. “I assume Morgan has told you of her assignment?”

“She did.” Sam answers gruffly, his hands on the buckles of his suit. “Don’t need an assistant.”

“Sam⏤”

“If I gotta take her along, then fine. Need some time to myself though.”

“Very well. Morgan and I will leave you to it. Come find her at the package terminal when you’re ready.” Hardman turns his gaze to Jade and inclines his head. “Morgan, get ready and head to the terminal.”

“Yes, sir.” She exits the room, slipping past Die-Hardman and disappearing from view.

“Thought she didn’t do well alone?”

“She doesn’t. Hence why she’s working with you.” He turns and steps out the door, leaving Sam with these parting words. “Thought you should see for yourself, if you’re going to utilize her and help restore Bridges. Head to the terminal whenever you’re ready. She’ll be waiting.”

* * *

“Guess we better head out, BB.” After taking a short rest, Sam suits up again and heads for the elevator⏤ plugging in BB on the ascent. “Time to see what all Hardman’s fuss was about.”

The elevator ascends with a mechanical whir and when it breaches the top level, Sam is wholly unprepared for what he finds. Jade Morgan looking deathly pale, trembling, and looking as if she’ll pass out any moment as she paces a short path just beyond the terminal.

“Hey.”

Jade jumps at the sound of his voice before dashing back to the terminal, stopping just short of Sam. 

“Give me a few minutes to pick up the jobs. Then we’ll head out.”

She nods and he watches from the edge of his gaze, noting that his proximity seems to ease her symptoms. Color returns to her face, the trembling subsides, and she begins to look as much at ease as anyone in the post-stranding world can be. Strange, but he doesn’t think too much on it. Just assumes that must be what Die-Hardman had been talking about and moves on. After gathering and arranging the packages for his loadout, he turns to Jade.

“Let’s get a move on.”

“Right.” She follows closely behind him as they exit the processing center.

* * *

“Hardman said you don’t do well alone.”

“No.”

“Said it was a long story.”

“It is.” A gentle sigh as she takes a lost parcel from Sam to help manage the weight. “It’s not a happy story either… but I guess we have nothing but time between now and the way station. If you’re interested.”

“Doesn’t matter much to me.” He readjusts his rig and stands. “You wanna tell me about, you can. Like you said, nothing but time.”

Sam and Jade continue onwards in relative silence, slogging through rivers and crossing rocky terrain, with Jade dashing away to grab lost packages as he sights them. BB stays quiet and little happens along their journey as they slowly make their way further and further from Central Knot City. It’s around the half-way point, however, that Jade finally breaks the silence.

“DOOMS level three.”

“Huh?”

“The reason I don’t do well alone. Well, part of it anyways.” She pauses as they survey the next body of water, scanning the shoreline for the best way across. “I… I was part of a Medical team about four years ago. We were on our way to a way station quite a good distance out and on a rather short time-limit. There were five of us. Three men, two women.”

“C’mon.” He says as he beckons her further downriver. “I take it something went wrong?”

“Yes.” She picks her way carefully along the shore, doing her best to mirror his movements. “Problem was, we were up in the cliffs with no discernible way down that would get us were we needed to be. So, given that we were on a time-limit and most of the team was getting apprehensive about completing it on time, I had the bright idea to try and find a shortcut.”

“Nothing wrong with that.”

“Ideally, no.”

“So what happened?”

“… I found us a shortcut, but I misjudged the distance. If I’d been thinking I would’ve used climbing gear, but I was so desperate to find us a solution that I just went for it.” She waits as Sam wades into the water, following shortly after. “The shortcut required us to navigate the outcroppings going down the side of the cliff and, as you can probably guess, they were farther away than I thought. I got hurt. Badly.”

“Porters get hurt all the time. Fall damage is more common than people think. You misjudge distance, try to go down a slope to fast, run outta rope, and so on. Not to mention BTs.”

She flinches and it doesn’t go unnoticed.

“You had a run-in with a bunch of BTs.”

“No,” she says softly. “Not me.”

There’s another brief stretch of silence as she grabs another two parcels and Sam doesn’t push her further on her story. It isn’t until they reach a cliffside that she resumes her tale.

“Like I said, I got hurt. I wasn’t going to be able to continue on with team without resting up for a while. Most of the team wanted to push on ahead even though I couldn’t continue on. May, the other woman on the team, offered to stay behind since the rest of them wanted to go on to complete the delivery.” Jade’s voice is tinged with sorrow as they trek onwards, steep terrain looming in the distance just past another cliffside. “So, May stayed behind with me and the rest pushed on. Their names were Nick, Dan, and Luke. They were almost to the way station, could see it from where they were looming above them in the distance. They were so close.”

“They didn’t make it.”

“No. They… got caught in timefall as they were scaling the cliff. Luke tried to run when the BTs appeared and fell down the cliffs. Nick tried to grab him and fell over with him… and Dan… was killed by the BTs.” Her voice breaks, but she continues. “Dan was May’s boyfriend. She lugged me back to the city after the rest of the team took off⏤ figured the closer we were the sooner I’d be able to heal up and we could get back to work. We didn’t find out what had happened to the rest of the team until days later when a report was filed on the missing cargo and they questioned May on what had happened.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah,” she laughs, bitterly. “that about sums it up. She quit taking jobs for a while and I was out of commission until I healed up. A few months passed and I get a job request with the stipulation that May also be on the delivery run. In the end… I handed the package over to another porter who completed the delivery for me.”

“That’s it? What about May?”

“The reason another porter ended up with the parcel… is because May set me up. She blamed me for everything that happened. Took me out to the middle of nowhere and pulled a gun. I thought she was going to shoot _me_ … but she did something worse. She said that I was the reason our team died and that I should have to suffer the way Dan did.” She looks down, gaze firmly set on the rocks at their feet. “She killed herself. We were nowhere near an incinerator and I didn’t have any way to dispose of her remains⏤ not that I had enough capacity at the time to do so to begin with. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t cremate her and I was out there all alone… BTs started closing in after that and I… left. I left her there. I didn’t want to. I just couldn’t do anything. … and that’s why I don’t do well alone. DOOMS gave me autophobia and then everything with May… I can’t do jobs on my own. Which is why I was assigned to you and that’s why I can’t say no to Bridges when they give me orders.”

“⏤as wrong.”

“What?”

“That girl was wrong.” Sam answers gruffly, thunking a ladder against the cliffside. “Not your fault they got caught in the timefall. You didn’t tell them to push on. They wanted to go on. They made the choice. Timefall and BTs were just bad luck.” He turns to face her, one hand on the ladder. “You’re stuck with me now. C’mon, we’ve got work to do.” 

Jade climbs the ladder after him, his words soothing the turmoil in her mind… if only a little.

**Author's Note:**

> This functions more or less as an explanation of Jade's phobia and a bit of backstory as to why she accompanies Sam in addition to being a way for them to interact for a prolonged period. It's a very self-indulgent work, but I worked on it for almost four hours and I'm pretty proud of myself considering it was a random idea that sparked today while playing.
> 
> As always, kudos/comments are appreciated but never expected. Thanks for reading!


End file.
